For anyone who’s been around the world of Blogger long enough, there is a bewildering ecosystem of entities that only the Blogger diehards know about. It’s one of those places on the Internet that’s had a hell of a long run but is simultaneously still sometimes treated like a corner of the Web that was put on the Internet in 2009 and hasn’t changed since. The truth of the matter is, there are many, many users who are actively blogging right now in this day and age on Blogger and who require themes to update the appearance of their blogs in order for them to look more “modern” or have a more unique identity. That’s where theme shops come in. Think of theme shops as a third way between using the stock templates that Google provides you with by default (which are, frankly, appalling) and coding up your own from scratch (which isn’t something everyone is going to want to learn how to do). Theme shops offer a curated experience in which a lot of the hard work is taken out of the process so that all the user needs to do is drop the CSS file they get from the theme shop into their blog and then configure it however they want. A good theme shop understands the concept of “editorial grade” design; that the user of their themes most likely doesn’t want to go into the template editor and spend six hours trying to fiddle with all the blocks and then realize their sidebar got broken because they deleted a single curly brace.
The specifics of Blogger themes is that they require a familiarity with the underlying structure of the blogging platform. Blogger is built on an XML format that differs from WordPress, Tumblr, or any of the other blogging systems you may know. An arbitrary HTML template that a user may have found while browsing the Internet won’t work with Blogger, because the widgets will break, your posts will not display properly, etc. A good theme shop shows an understanding of how Blogger works on a very technical level because they have experience and knowledge of the unique system in place. They are aware of and respect the limits of Blogger—what’s possible, what’s not. They understand how the gadget system works, for example, and what is and isn’t possible with regard to responsive design (mobile versions of your site break a lot more easily in Blogger because of the mobile gadget).
What makes a good Blogger theme stand out from the rest is, among other things, speed. A bloatware theme with a zillion unnecessary scripts and bloated images will seriously drag down your load times and Google will not be your friend, your SEO will suffer, visitors will bounce before the page has even finished loading and it just becomes a big mess. Themes that prioritize performance and are lightweight are the way to go. Another factor is the actual design philosophy of the theme, are they designed to be readable or just to look flashy in a screenshot? Because yes you can have the most beautiful header image and fancy animations but if your body text is like 10px gray-on-gray no one is reading your entire post.
Customization is a matter of particular note (or of particular frustration, depending on how the theme has been designed). Some themes will have extensive customization capabilities using the Blogger theme editor; some will not. There are themes that have myriad color, font, widget, layout options that can all be set point-and-click by a non-developer user without having to edit the code itself, and there are themes which have more limited customization options but cleaner overall presentation—less ability to change things up, but an overall consistent look and feel. There are also some themes that fall somewhere in between where the theme shop may provide documentation on how to further customize CSS variables if you have the wherewithal to want to dig that deep. For someone who doesn’t have any web development experience but isn’t wholly unfamiliar with coding, that last option is generally the best; you can make the kinds of changes that you want without inadvertently breaking your theme in the process.
Of course, there is also the question of support and updates because, let’s face it, if you buy a theme and the developer decides to abandon the project half a year later when Blogger comes out with a platform update that breaks something, that’s kind of a dick move. Design shops that have been around for a while usually have a maintenance schedule where they update their products with new features and bugfixes. With a free theme? Good luck asking for help when something doesn’t work. You’re on your own with forum threads from 2017 that or might not work with the current version.
Design trends change all the time and something that looked cutting edge two years ago might feel kind of dated now. Minimalism is in, but there’s a lot more space for fun typography and asymmetrical designs than before, darkmode options are kind of a must these days, and microinteractions (those little hover animations and stuff) can actually elevate the entire experience if used sparingly (or they can feel a little tacky if abused). A theme that strikes a good balance between design trends and timeless readability is one that will age better than a theme that chases every design trend at the same time.
Support and updates are things that aren’t talked about all that much until after a theme has been purchased and the user experiences a problem with it. Blogger is still being updated on occasion, and there are times when the platform itself receives an update that breaks older themes. A sidebar that suddenly looks funky, for example, or the mobile menu that inexplicably stops functioning. Theme shops that have their act together generally release updates and provide support to their customers. Support doesn’t just mean “fixing bugs when they crop up”—good support means also providing assistance when someone doesn’t understand how to change a setting or offering detailed installation guides that walk the user through how to get a theme set up correctly. To some extent, the support is more valuable than the theme itself; a theme is just a one-time transaction, but the support is the ongoing benefit of having someone there to help if something goes wrong.
Also keep in mind what you’re comfortable with from a technical perspective because some themes assume you have a working knowledge of HTML/CSS and some are really made for beginners, with drag and drop customizers and visual editors that you just play around with. No shame in going for the one that’s a little easier to work with if that means you’ll actually use it instead of get frustrated with it and abandon the whole thing. I’ve seen so many blogs that are stuck with half implemented custom themes because someone tried to go too far down the path of manually hand coding everything from scratch.
The fact of the matter is, most people greatly underestimate the impact that good design can have on their blog. If you can have wonderful content on a site that looks like a 2012 default template, with horrible colors, and half your content being spit out in blog lists and comment boxes that are in the wrong place, you can have all the good content in the world but visitors won’t stick around to read it. A theme from a professional theme shop addresses that issue in a way; it fixes the problem that the default templates often present—that being that you look like you don’t give a damn about your blog. A well-designed theme from a professional theme shop can go a long way in convincing visitors that you do indeed care about the presentation of your blog, which in turn means that they are more likely to trust you and what you have to say, and engage with your content instead of leaving.
